There must be hundreds of camping security devises out there that each of us don’t even know about and some of us may have some very simple but effective ways & ideas that we could share with each other.
I think we all agree that most, if not all of us would not want our vans back if stolen, that of coarse assumes we are all covered by insurance! The thing is, none of us want the van stolen in the first place as we will loose, apart from the van, all our personal valuables and on top of that have the hassle of getting a insurance payout, also we have to repurchase all the equipment etc...This could stop us caravanning for months!
So since this is unacceptable inconvenience to us, lets see how inconvenient we can make it for the thief to steel it in the first place.
Why don't we (us club members) start to list all the possible ways / ideas known to us that will make our vans less attractive to the thief !
Maybe we could get one of the Administrators of this forum to collect them up from our posts and put them onto one page for any new members to read. It would need to be a list of ways/ideas/info that improves the inconvenience of steeling a caravan!, not a list of our criticisms, likes or dislikes of each precaution that anybody has suggested. I think any security precaution taken, no matter how small will help to achieve a higher level of inconvenience the thief.
As this could grow into a rather long list over the months to come, I have started it as a new Topic
So now for the list:-
1. The wheel clamp I use is a clamp and wheel jack all in one, by jacking it a little as well as clamping the wheel it becomes far more inconvenient.
2. The hitch lock I use is a ROBSTOP WS 3000 which can be used while towing, I use an old towing hook ball to fill the hitch joint with as the supplied robstop ball is made of plastic! Could be drilled out!
3. I have a large steel bar/bolt (about 12" long) which I push through a hole in one wheel and this is held in place by a high-grade padlock. If the van was towed it would rip the van to bits. The wheel nuts are protected by the wheel clamp. You could use a bar that go's though both wheel's.
4. My van is electronically tagged and also some of its contents and fixtures, there are many labels stating this affixed to the van. Thus the thief knows the van would not sell for as much money. Also a greater chance of him getting caught. I have also put identifying micro dots on most of our personal things. This marking is now registered with Stoptheft (Trovan)
5. Our drive is 90ft long and only 10ft wide so we park both of our alarmed cars behind our caravan. The thief must move them first.
6. As we have an electric caravan mover fitted we are able to park the van with its towing hook in the driveway first, so it would have to be pulled out backwards. The remote control to the mover is not kept with the van and the mover on switch is well hidden inside the van.
7. We have a dog.
8. Our drive is covered with noisy pebbles, we and the dog can hear any movement outside, they also make it almost impossible to push the van.
9. We do plug the mains lead into our van so's to get the fridge working and the battery charged but generally the power is switched off from inside our house, don’t want them to use our electricity when trying to cut into our wheel clamp etc!
10. There are two heavy duty lockable metal bulldog posts concreted into our drive, one directly behind the van and the other directly behind our two cars.
11. There is a label on the first post telling the would be thief that remote alarms will be triggerd if the posts are tampered with!
Yes I know it could still be stolen, but its quite inconvenient for him, so he may just go for somebody else's and leave mine alone! What ideas have you got?
:
